My Lady Nicotine: A Study of Smoke

by J.M. Barrie

From the creator of Peter Pan, My Lady Nicotine is one of his earlier works. Focusing on his days as a smoker, J.M. Barrie takes us through his life as a smoker to his last pipe as he begins his non-smoking days. Barrie's humorous essays about his companions, habits and quitting are sure to delight readers.

Genres: Classics, Humor, Essays, Fiction, Literature

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays.

The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper in Nottingham and contributed to various London journals before moving there in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life representative of the Kailyard school. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued to write novels, but gradually, his interest turned towards the theatre.

In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.

Following the deaths of their parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 grey, polluted, putrid, smothered stars, and I give it credit for not being what I expected and for the pleasant surprises and some excellent writing that kept me reading.

But seriously: if you don't smoke, please don't start; if you do smoke, please try to quit! Thank you. You are worthy of loving someone who or something that actually loves you back.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Pan gives up smoking.

As befitted a Victorian gentleman, J. M. Barrie was inordinately fond of his pipe. Urged on by his fiancée he gave it up. Looking back on his days as a smoker he wrote a number of articles about the joys of the baccy and collected them together in this amusing little book.

Having read it, I have no idea how he managed to kick the habit, he clearly loved a good puff and everything connected to it, evidenced by his affectionate fetishizing of smoking pariphinallia such a pipe, pouch and table.

He waxes so lyrical about the ambrosia of tobacco brands, the 'Arcadia Mixture,' that given a choice between a few grams of that and Walter White's best batch of Blue Sky crystal meth I'd have to toss a coin for it.

Some of the incidents only tangentially touch on tobacco, but I wasn't complaining. I laughed out loud when a friend proposed while fishing, only to get a bite and interrupt the good ladies reply. You may not be surprised to know that her answer was "No."

The chapter where the narrator failed to water his holidaying friend's potted plant for three weeks struck a particular comic chord with me. I respect that level of neglect!

I don't know if Barrie began smoking again after his marriage but his assertion that with its introduction to Elizabethan England the 'whole country was stirred by the ambition to live up to tobacco' makes me believe that he must have.

His wife left him. The tobacco is always true.

[Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was in the house Bonnie and I rented in Carmel, in 1979. I must have really enjoyed it, for me to have remembered it 30 years later.

[Max Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great book by any standard. I read it only as I am a pipe smoker.

[Arsnoctis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libriccino delizioso, almeno per un'ex fumatrice.
Chi volesse leggerlo abbia cura di procurarsi un'edizione illustrata da Maurice B.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some fine stories in this collection; I liked some better than others, just as I prefer some tobacco better than others. Taken as a whole, you won’t find a better collection of witty stories to accompany your smoking. For all cigar lovers, pipe smokers, and apprentices of fine tobacco, this ought to be on your shelf!

[Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book, a smoker nonetheless. This book starts slow but is full of so many witty scenes and poignant philosophies surrounding addiction, character, and the essential transition of a life from bachelor to man. My favorite chapter 31 “The Perils of Not Smoking”, where all of Barrie’s friends are trying to convince him it is dangerous to give up smoking. Very humorous.

[Brian Schiebout · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Lady Nicotine by J. M. Barrie is a novel about a man's first love. The love as can be told by the title is not for a woman but for tobacco more particularly a specific blend of it. The story is mostly about his days of youth when he meets with a group of friends to smoke their Arcadia blend of tobacco which they consider the greatest thing in the universe. In many ways the story is less about tobacco and more about the ideas of victorian England and the way that a group of guys could get together to discuss things and enjoy life. While the Arcadia blend is what ties the friends together most of the story is what they do or see when they are together. There are of course many simularities in the style between this book and the Little White Bird by the same author. Both deal with single bachelors who spend much of their time in idleness with close friends who share the same vices while being watched over by lesser people who are only fit to be servants. The elements of his nephews visit also bears an earie simularity to his own games with his stepchildren. I found after reading the book a desire to have a deep friendship with others like the books characters have with each other. Though it is a fictional work I have seen the same thing happen in friends that I know who smoke who seem to have an attachment to others who they smoke with. Although I would never smoke as I know enough of the damaging aspects of the hobby I can easily see the attraction in having groups around who I can experience life with. Overall it was a pleasant book which is very much British and very much victorian.

[niina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly enough, this is the first book I've read written by our beloved mister J.M. Barrie. What's not so odd, My Lady Nicotine was a very smooth and pleasing read, the overall tone of the text through quite varying stories and topics remaining particularly peaceful and very trustworthy, as if the teller never wanted anything bad for the reader. Curious impression if nothing else!

The topics and subjects under discussion were and remained quite uncharted for me, knitted thigh in history of gentlemen of England, yet they were easy to read and even easier to get along with, which takes us back to this very trusting relationship that seemed to be build between the reader, or at least me, and the author. Most of the time I had no idea what to expect, but it was alright.

In the center of occurrences was a relatively small, constant gang of gents, the author or his alter-ego included, who were bound together mostly by the love to a certain brand of tobacco, which they felt made them way superior compared to most of people, even inside their own classes. The stories and other texts in the book don't really whirl that much around the tobacco itself as it does around this gang, but they're made so familiar right in the beginning it doesn't get weird at any point.

Overall very pleasant read, even though it wasn't really what I expected.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early work by the creator of Peter Pan and at times uneven, but nonetheless an enjoyable collection of humorous essays related to the author's smoking habits, smoker companions, and finally his abandonment of this practice. Some material seems dated, but the rest can still resonate with contemporary readers because Barrie's witty observations of human foibles are timeless.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through a series of brief chapters J.M. Barrie of Peter Pan fame, takes us through his days as a smoker. Culminating with the smoking a his last pipeful and the beginning of his new life as a non-smoker. A comedic study and a fun read.

[towner77 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up the nasty habit of pipe smoking this past spring and started looking for literature to feed my obsession for knowledge about pipes and tobacco. Found this book by the author of "Peter Pan." It was a very good story and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in smoke.

[Jason Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lesser-known tome from the author of Peter Pan. It is an anecdotal remembrance of a society of pipeweed lovers who share a favorite tobacco - The Arcadia Mixture.

The chapter on Gilray's Flower Pot is one of the side-splitting greats in all of literature

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wistful recollections of happier times and tobacco consumed.

[christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wanted to try another j.m. barrie book. maybe the british humor was over my head or something got lost thru the years but it was just sorta ho-hum.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty and funny quick read.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable little read about the joys of smoking along with a few witty stories to accompany your evening pipe.

[Emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The escapades of a tobacco smoking bachelor in the early 1900s.
It was a good read, but i cant find a definite conclusion.
Sometimes it gives an interesting view of the people from these times.

[Mike Bardzinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Three Men in A Boat. The humour had me chuckling most of the time, punctuated with an occasional side-splitting guffaw.

[Theo Austin-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly charming and exceedingly pleasant - I’m a philistine as I vaped the whole time whilst I read it, what a loser. Well…. that’s not strictly true. I managed to get through the first 100 pages or so on a break from that tediously adolescent and unattractive habit, but Barrie soon won me back on the subject of nicotine (and seeing as I don’t drink anymore I figure I can allow myself at least one vice, that and the excessive masturbation of course), so I decided to give my lungs the good kicking that they deserve. My body is a temple, but the temple is the Hindu’s Karni Mata and there’s rat shit all over it. I’d recommend the book to all, the moments of 19th century (mostly harmless) misogyny be damned, just settle in with the Arcadia gang and their lovely collection of briars and meerschaums, you might even get a chance to hear about another woman Marriot has fallen in love with, or perhaps snuggle up and hear Barrie admit to the murder of three bothersome drunkards outside his window, and if you’re so inclined you could even join in one of the most terrible sounding boat trips committed to paper. Only having finished this did I find out that this bastard created Peter Pan, and for those who are curious that all-important Arcadia Mixture turns out to be a different moniker for the now discontinued Craven mixture (https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/thre...) so…. stick that in your pipe and smoke it!!

[Federica Frittoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thin elegantly illustrated book written by the father of Tinker Bell and published in 1895.

J. M. Barrie puts to work his British (Scottish?) humour to tell us about the liaison of a man with tobacco - as well as with his bunch of very funny smoking male friends - who can marry the gentlewoman willing to fall into his arms, provided that he gives up smoking. Despite the numerous attempts by his companions to discourage him from his “insane decision” and their pitiful and funny promotion to his patient wife of the supposed healthy effects of smoke, he sticks to his commitments……and the couple lives happily ever after….

I found mostly amusing the description of the Japologist Scrymgeour, who pretends to live comfortably in his Japan-like microcosm just to act covertly exactly like his British bunch of friends!

[Matt Kelland · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird one. It's a series of vignettes about a group of friends who have bonded around their shared love of a particular brand of tobacco. Most of the anecdotes involve them smoking, and how this activity is central to their lives. It's framed by a story about the author giving up tobacco and forcing his friends to come to terms with the fact that he's no longer a smoker. And, like all ex-smokers, he is unbearably self-righteous about it.

I kept comparing it to Trainspotting, Diary of a Drug Fiend and Confessions of an Opium Eater - all books about drug abuse. It's certainly a curio, and not something I had expected from the author of Peter Pan.

[Buitron David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno de los libros más adictivos que he leído últimamente. De hecho, sucumbí ante la tentación y tuve que encender un habano durante la lectura. Una pequeña joya literaria que desprende un agradable aroma intelectual.

[Gary Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting bit of fiction related to, centered around pipe smoking and tobacco. I had heard references to this book throughout my years of pipe smoking and for some reason expected a great deal more out of it. Especially compared to other books on this subject. So, only three stars.

[Lux Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring ass gentlemen’s advice book about a man who thinks he’s so elevated now because he was able to quit smoking. Stay humble to yourself when you achieve something. Makes much more of an impact and impression I find.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

God Bless Sir Walter Ralegh

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siempre recomiendo este libro. Es uno de mis favoritos y de los que he leído y leeré sin cansarme. Me encanta el sarcasmo del autor sobre el tema del tabaco

[Scott Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to classify for me. Pipe Smokers will definitely enjoy most of the stories within and there is no denying Mr. Barrie’s skill with a pen. For me a solid 3.5 stars

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good.